List of acronyms associated with the eurozone crisis

This is a list of acronyms and initialisms associated with the eurozone crisis.

  • CAC 1. Collective action clause: agreement in the issuance of bonds that allows a supermajority of bondholders to agree to a debt restructuring that is legally binding on all holders of the bond, including those who vote against the restructuring. 2. Capital account convertibility : the extent to which a nation's financial regime allows transactions of local financial assets into foreign financial assets freely and at market-determined exchange rates.
  • CAR (Capital Adequacy Ratio, aka Capital-to-Risk Weighted Assets Ratio or CRAR): the ratio of a bank's capital to its risk.
  • CDO (Collateralized debt obligation): type of structured asset-backed security (see ABS) with multiple tranches, issued by special purpose entities and collateralized by debt obligations, including bonds and/or loans. Each tranche offers a varying degree of risk and return so as to meet investor demand. CDOs' value & payments are derived from a portfolio of fixed-income underlying assets.
  • CDS (Credit default swap): financial agreement whereby one side (the seller of the CDS) agrees to compensate the other side (the CDS buyer) in the event of a loan default or other credit event. The buyer makes a series of payments (called "fee" or "spread") to the seller and, in exchange, receives a payoff if the loan defaults. An LCDS (Loan-only credit default swap) is a CDS whose underlying security is strictly a syndicated, secured loan, and never a bond.
  • CEBS (Committee of European Banking Supervisors): former independent advisory committee of the European Union (EU), tasked with banking supervision within the EU. Predecessor of the European Banking Authority (EBA).
  • CET1 (Common Equity Tier 1): percentage of bank capital that B III standards require banks to fund with RWAs (risk-weighted assets) composed of shareholders' equity, including audited profits, goodwill, and other intangible assets - less accounting reserves that are not loss absorbing. Currently, and since 2015, it stands at 4.5%.
  • CFS (Center for Financial Studies): German independent research institute affiliated to the Goethe University Frankfurt, which conducts applied research in the areas of financial markets, financial intermediaries and macroeconomics.
  • COSAC (French: Conférence des organes spécialisés dans les affaires communautaires et européennes des parlements de l'Union européenne - Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union): conference of Members of the European Parliament and national Members of Parliament (MPs) drawn from parliamentary committees responsible for European Union affairs; mainly intended for personal contacts and exchange of information but also adopts proposals to EU institutions.
  • CRAR: See CAR.
  • DSA (Debt sustainability analysis): IMF's analysis of a country's capacity to finance its policy objectives and service the ensuing debt without unduly large adjustments, conducted through a formal framework that became operational in 2002.
  • DSGE modeling (Dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium modeling), also DGE: branch of applied general-equilibrium economic theory, influential in contemporary macroeconomics. It attempts to explain aggregate economic phenomena (growth, business cycles, effects of monetary and/or fiscal policy, etc.) on the basis of macroeconomic models derived from microeconomic principles. The European Central Bank (ECB) uses a DSGE model (the Smets-Wouters model) to analyze the economy of the Eurozone as a whole.
  • FATF (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering), also GAFI (Groupe d'Action Financière): intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering; intensified European money laundering investigations during the crisis.[4]
  • FDI (Foreign direct investment): investment by foreign nationals into a country; measure of attractiveness of country's economic conditions and prospects. Total FDI in Europe fell as a result of the crisis.
  • FST (Fiscal Stability Treaty): see EFC, def. #1.
  • GAFI: See FATF.
  • GDP (Gross domestic product): the market value of all goods and services produced within a country in a given period, usually one year. (See also GNP)
  • GFC (Global financial crisis): term denoting the financial crisis of 2007–2008.
  • GNP (Gross National Product): the market value of all goods and services produced by the residents of a country in a given period, usually one year. (See also GDP)
  • Grexit (Greek Euro Area exit): slang term introduced in 2012 in world business trading, referring to the possibility that Greece could leave the Eurozone, and possibly re-adopt its old currency, the drachma.
  • LCDS: See CDS.
  • LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate): the average interest rate that leading banks in London charge when lending to other banks. It is widely used as a reference rate for many financial instruments, including sovereign loans. LIBORs are commonly used for Sterling and US dollar-denominated instruments, just as Euribors are used as a reference rate for Euro-denominated instruments. (See also Libor scandal.)
  • LLR (Lender of last resort): term denoting an institution willing to extend credit when no one else will. In the Eurozone, the lender of last resort for banks is the European Central Bank (ECB).
  • LTRO (Long-term refinancing operation): ECB programme of low-interest loans to European banks but not to European states, accepting loans from the portfolio of the banks as collateral.
  • MIP (Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure): set of measures and policies, part of EU's sixpack legislation, designed to prevent and correct ostensibly risky macroeconomic developments, such as high current-account deficits, unsustainable external indebtedness and housing bubbles.
  • Moneyval (Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism): institution within the Council of Europe and answerable directly to the Committee of Ministers, having the task of monitoring the status and implementation of anti-money laundering measures in Europe.
  • NAMA (National Asset Management Agency): institution created by the Government of Ireland, in late 2009, in response to the Irish financial crisis and the deflation of the Irish property bubble. It functions as a bad bank, acquiring property development loans from Irish banks in return for government bonds, primarily with a view to improving the availability of credit in the Irish economy.
  • NCB (National central bank): the institution that manages a nation's currency, money supply, and interest rates. The NCBs of Eurozone's member-states have ceded to the European Central Bank most rights for major central-bank operations.
  • NIIP (Net international investment position); also, sometimes, NIP : the difference between a country's external financial assets and its external financial liabilities. A country's IIP (international investment position) is the financial statement setting out the value and composition of that country's external financial assets & liabilities.
  • NPM (New public management): government policies that aim to modernise and render more effective the public sector. Part of IMF and ECB recommendations to Eurozone countries.
  • NTMA (National Treasury Management Agency): government agency, established in 1990, which manages the assets and liabilities of the Government of Ireland, borrows for the exchequer, and manages the national debt.
  • OMT (Outright Monetary Transactions): ECB's purchases ("outright transactions") in sovereign-bond secondary markets, within the Eurosystem, and also, under certain conditions, of bonds issued by Eurozone member-states. OMT replaces the bank's Securities Markets Programme (SMP).
  • OSI: See PSI.
  • PEPP (Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme): the temporary asset-purchase programme[5] of private and public sector securities initiated on 18 March 2020[6] by the ECB to counter the financial risks posed by the outbreak of covid-19. The programme was terminated on 31 March 2022.[7]
  • PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain); also, since 2008, PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain): pejorative term denoting Eurozone's troubled economies.
  • PSI (Private sector involvement): participation of private creditors in sovereign-debt restructuring deals. The participation of state sectors is denoted as OSI (official sector involvement).
  • SDR (Special drawing rights): supplementary foreign-exchange reserve assets maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which represent a claim to currency held by IMF member-countries for which they may be exchanged. An SDR functions as the unit of account for the IMF.
  • SGP (Stability and Growth Pact): agreement among the member-states of the European Union, to facilitate and maintain the stability of the Economic and Monetary Union. In order for member-states to join the Eurozone, they would have to abide by the criteria for public finances which the Maastricht Treaty defined, such as member-states having (a) an annual budget deficit no greater than 3% of GDP, and (b) a national debt no greater than 60% of GDP.
  • SMP: See OMT.
  • SONIA (Sterling OverNight Index Average): reference rate for transactions in the British Sterling market, calculated as the weighted average rate of all unsecured overnight sterling transactions brokered in London by members of The Wholesale Markets Brokers' Association.
  • SPE (Special purpose entity); also SPV (Special purpose vehicle): legal entity created to fulfill narrow, specific and/or temporary objectives. Usually a limited company of some type or a limited partnership.
  • SPV : See SPE.
  • SRM (Single Resolution Mechanism): decision process that applies to banks covered by the Single Supervisory Mechanism. SRM covers all banks established in the Eurozone.
  • SSM (Single Supervisory Mechanism): synonym of European Banking Supervision.
  • S&P (Standard & Poor's): American financial services company and one of the biggest credit-rating agencies in the world.
  • TARGET (Trans-European, Automated, Real-time, Gross Settlement, Express Transfer system): interbank payment system for the real-time processing of cross-border money transfers throughout the European Union.
  • TARGET2: the current, 2nd generation of TARGET, in place since November 2007.
  • TEU (Treaty on European Union), also known as the Maastricht Treaty: it created in 1992 the three-pillars structure of the EU and led to the creation of the single European currency.
  • TSCG (Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union). Same as the FST (Fiscal Stability Treaty).

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Greece Déjà Vu All Over Again?" by Jeffrey Anderson & Jessica Stallings, Institute of International Finance, 27 November 2013
  2. ^ "Eurozone stimulus: A myth, some facts, and impact estimates" by Volker Wieland, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability, Goethe University, Frankfurt, 5 September 2009
  3. ^ "US fiscal stimulus worked – more evidence" by Bill Mitchell, 28 February 2011
  4. ^ "Zyperns Geldwäsche und die EU-Richtlinie" ("Cyprus money-laundering and the EU directive"), EurActiv website, 7 March 2014 (in German)
  5. ^ Bank, European Central (22 January 2016). "How does the ECB's asset purchase programme work?". ECB. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  6. ^ Bank, European Central (18 March 2020). "ECB announces €750 billion Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP)". ECB. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  7. ^ Bank, European Central (16 December 2021). "Pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP)". ECB. Retrieved 16 December 2021.